London/Soho

Soho is a region of central London, part of the West End, generally considered to be enclosed by Piccadilly Circus, Shaftesbury Avenue and Cambridge Circus to the south, Charing Cross Road to the east, Oxford Street to the north, and Regent Street to the west.

Soho has the densest concentration of restaurants, cafés, clubs and bars in central London, and represents the vibrant, bustling heart of the city. Although true of much of Soho, and some districts immediately surrounding it (such as Covent Garden), the area immediately surrounding Old Compton Street in the southern part of Soho is widely recognised as London's premier gay village.

Soho is also the hub of London's media world with multiple advertising agencies, television and radio studios and post-roduction companies choosing Soho as their base of operations. Soho is also frequently featured in film and song with the Pogues, Kirsty Mccoll and others having made Soho their choice of inspiration.

Soho is sometimes considered to include London's Chinatown. Chinatown, however, lies south of Shaftesbury Avenue and, having a culture distinctly different from the rest of the West End, must be considered a unique district within itself, adjoining - but not really part of - Soho.

The name of London's Soho has been deliberately imitated by the SoHo district of Manhattan, New York, and by Soho, Hong Kong, one of the main tourist areas on Hong Kong Island.

Get in

By tube

An Underground station serves each of the four approximate corners of Soho: Tottenham Court Road to the north-east, Oxford Circus to the north-west, Leicester Square to the south-east, and Piccadilly Circus to the south-west.

By train

The most convenient mainline rail station is Charing Cross, located about five minutes walk to the south-east.

By car

Access to Soho by car is not recommended, owing to traffic congestion and stringent parking restrictions, and the £8 congestion charge. There is, however, a Masterpark parking station on Poland Street.

Rickshaw

More entertainment than transportation really, rickshaws run in Soho and the surrounding areas. They are slightly more expensive than a black cab, so not cheap, but they are a lot of fun and can often be the fastest way to get around in the West End.

Do

Explore

Soho is best discovered by simply wandering its streets. Take the less trodden paths and you'll be amazed by the rabbit warren of streets and the seemingly endless number of cafes, bars, shops and more. Some highlights are:

• Old Compton Street, Soho's unofficial high-street is full of bars, cafes, clubs and shops. It's a great place to grab a coffee and watch Soho go by.
• Soho Square, a centuries-old small park that becomes packed on warm sunny days.
• Have tea and cakes in one of Soho's great patisseries: the slightly tatty but utterly french Maison Bertaux (28 Greek Street W1D 5DD, since 1871) or Patisserie Valerie (44 Old Compton Street W1D 5JX)

Listen

• Ronnie Scott's world-famous Jazz Bar =>, 47 Frith Street, tel 020 7439 0747, fax 020 7437 5081, enquiries & reservations mailto:ronniescotts@ronniescotts.co.uk, open Mo-Sa 8.30pm-3am including Bank holidays (closed Xmas Eve, Xmas day & Boxing Day), live music 9.45pm-2am, non-members admission £20 Mo-Th, £25 Fr-Sa, members admission £5/£10 (ordinary membership £60 per annum)

Watch

• Curzon Soho Cinema =>, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue - voted London's Number 1 Cinema by Time Out readers, great bar and a fantastic art-house program

Eat

• Ma'oz, 43 Old Compton Street. The best place for a light vegetarian/vegan meal, one of the few places in Soho where a fiver can get get you fed. Open 10:00 until late.

• Busaba Eathai, 106-110 Wardour Street (about 10 minutes walk from Piccadilly Circus), tel. 020 7255 8686. One of the best choices on a street with any number of fantastic restaurants. You'll find a laid back atmosphere with big low wooden tables (expect to share if your party is small). The menu features among other dishes a fine butternut squash curry. Average meal £14-20. Open daily 12:00-23:00.

• Boardwalk, 18 Greek Street (runs parallel to Charing Cross Road from Soho Square to Shaftesbury Ave). A bar restaurant that serves £3 meals until 5pm on week days. Beware the price of drinks, however. The Montague Pyke (a Lloyds No.1 bar) next door exits onto both Greek Street and Charing Cross Road and offers real ales and two-for-one offers on a variety of meals. Two good choices if you're strapped for cash.

• Chowki, 2-3 Denman Street (off Piccadilly Circus) =>. In a city which was once the capital of India it makes sense that one can find a decent to good Indian restaurant on just about every corner. Once in a while you find one though that does things in an interesting enought way to be worth talking about. Chowki is like that, with dishes from around India that do not conform to the standard Bengali / Kashmiri / Punjabi fare, but surprise and please the pallet with unexpected overtones of Africa, or Italy, or Greece. Set menus for £14.50 (£12.50 vegetarian). Open daily until midnight.

• Wagamama, 10a Lexington Street =>. Generally good quality Japanese food at a reasonable price. Service is swift, and although queues can often be quite long, clear rapidly. Diners are seated on benches opposite each other, so not a good place for an intimate meal. Main courses generally around £5 to £8. Open Mon-Sat until 23:00, Sun until 22:00.

• TAI, 10 Greek Street (just off Soho Square, parallel to Charing Cross Road) - an oriental vegetarian / vegan restaurant that offers a cheap buffet and a variety of spicy dishes.

• Taro, Brewer St - noodles, sushi, bento boxes and assorted other Japanese goodies. Good cheap eats and reliable quality in central London.

• Andrew Edmunds - top quality restaurant, great romantic spot. Bookings recommended.

• Stockpot, 18 Old Compton Street; tel 0207 287 1066. Good dependable British cuisine, mains average £5-10 without drinks. Open Mon-Sat 11:30-00:00, Sun 11:30-23.30.

Drink

• The Admiral Duncan
• Comptons
• The Yard
• The Village
• Rupert Street
• The Intrepid Fox is the best/only rock + metal pub in London, and can be found on Wardour Street. More info here: http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/show.shtml/375/
• The French House, 49 Dean Street, is the pub in which the French resistance drank convened during the Second World War. It is only a very small pub, so expect to be jammed in, particularly in Winter. Also, note that the pub only serves beer in half-pints.

Buy

Soho has a number of gay-related outlets - some of the best known are:

• Prowler
• Clone Zone, Old Compton Street

Media

Soho is London's media hub - some movers and shakers include:

• Virgin Radio - Radio Station, - Golden Square
• Tiger Aspect - TV production - Soho Street
• Vivid London - Integrated Media, Advertising & Brand Creation- Sheraton Street
• Think Farm - Integrated Media, Advertising & Brand Creation, - Wardour Street
• Ascent Media Advertising, Television & Film - Wardour Street
• Reading Room - Web Site Builders - Dean Street/Frith Street

External links

• Soho Society - community website, recently totally overhauled and full of new information
• St. Anne's, Soho - community church with online space.
• Soho Green - regenerating Soho's open spaces

This text of this article is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0. It has been slightly modified to fit the general design of this website. The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, Evan Prodromou, Rob Payne, Rory, keith bassingthwaighte and the following WikiTravel users: Abstraktn, Huttite, Maj, Mark, MykReeve, Nils, Pjamescowie, Steeev. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/London/Soho.